Educators Draw Fire at Public Forum

A town hall meeting on public education in Bel-Air on Sunday produced strong emotions on topics ranging from the quality of teachers to parent involvement.

The frustrations of some of the almost 100 people attending were evident in the number of questions directed at school officials--there were so many, the officials had to promise to take written questions with them and try and respond later.

When State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin made a brief appearance at the beginning and left after her speech, a few in the audience rose to protest.

Speaking to a mostly receptive audience, Eastin outlined what she viewed as the main problems in the state’s public education system.

“You cannot have world class schools with a Third World budget,” said Eastin, who is seeking reelection this year.

Eastin, 50, stressed the need to bring public schools up-to-date with computer technology and challenged every gubernatorial candidate to make a pledge to bring California’s per-pupil spending up to the national average in five years. Currently, California spends about $1,000 less on each student than the national average.

Most in the audience applauded Eastin’s speech, but as she prepared to leave some yelled questions at her and were angered by her quick exit.

“I heard crap,” Carmen Sanchez Sadek, an educational consultant from Los Angeles, said. “There wasn’t a word about how to teach our children. That’s why we have an Unz initiative [the English-only proposition in the June ballots that would virtually ban bilingual education]. We have those concerns. This is incredible.”

However, Michael Hirschfeld of the Jewish Federation, the nonprofit community organization sponsoring the event, defended Eastin.

“She was asked to give a presentation,” not to answer questions, he said.

Questions from parents and teachers centered on the quality of instructors, the state of school repairs and parent involvement.

Some of those present took Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias to task over his district’s high turnover of teachers and problems caused by those who don’t perform well.

Zacarias said the district has set up training programs for new and veteran teachers.

“We will shape them up or ship them out,” Zacarias said.

Steven Soboroff, a member of the committee overseeing Proposition BB-funded school repair projects in the LAUSD, said he has sat through many public meetings and that the anger people feel is justified.

However, “you have to ask yourselves, ‘are you here to vent or are you here to fix?’ ” He asked. “I am not in the venting business. I’m in the fixing business.”